Metastatic cancer accounts for 90% of cancer related deaths and no long term successful therapeutic intervention has been discovered. Tumor invasion is one of the key processes that occur leading to metastatic disease, therefore, novel therapeutic approaches are critically needed to slow tumor invasion and slow the formation of metastatic disease. This is especially critical for brain cancer where tumor invasion is the primary reason that patients succumb. Overall, tumor invasion and subsequent metastatic spread of tumor cells is the number one reason why patients with advanced cancer die. Unfortunately, little in the way of clinically beneficial treatments is available to stop the spread of cancer and subsequent formation of metastatic lesions.
Lysosomes are intracellular organelles normally maintaining an acidic pH that are filled with a variety of degradative enzymes including proteases. Historically, lysosomes were thought to be function as the garbage disposal of the cell to help remove internalized cell surface receptors, internalized bacteria and intracellular organelles that had become non-functional.